On Tue, 02 Mar 2004 08:13:47 GMT, Sherwin Dubren
wrote:

Hi Will,
I also have a Moorpark Apricot here in a suburb of Chicago. It is on
dwarf rootstock. In the past 5 seasons of growth, I have had two good
crops,
including last years and three years ago. I also do hand pollination,
although
last year I think I over did it.
The reason for grafting is to preserve the genetic character of the
original tree.
Planting a seed mixes the genetics of the original tree with those of
the tree from
which the pollen came from.

Also, some are "sports" which are variations that occur on a tree
where one branch is somehow different from all the rest of the tree
and in those cases the only way of propagating it is by grafting.

But overall, one of the main reasons beyond the keeping the genetics
the same is that it's just faster to produce new trees of size by bud
grafting, Taking an older rootstock plant that's growing well, and
grafting the bud of another tree onto the trunk of the rootstock
plant, and then waiting for the bud to "take" and show its viability
by growing is faster than growing a whole new tree from a seed. Once
the bud grows out enough they top of the host rootstock plant is cut
off just above the point where the bud was grafted on, and the growth
from that bud becomes the whole tree. Any growth below the bud graft
is cut off. The graft point is kept high enough that the grafted part
of the plant is discouraged from developing its own root system,
particularly in graftings that are to control the size of the
resulting plant.

I had an elberta tree that became so sun scalded I was sure it would
just die, so I had it cut down. I regret that now because of a
seedling peach tree that came up from a fallen peach from the original
tree. I'm 99.999% sure that it was self pollinated as there were no
other peach trees anywhere close by then, or now. The resulting tree
grew tortured because I was not actively gardening due to bad knees,
and back, otherwise I would have dug it out. But since I didn't dig
it out, it grew without much additional water and became badly sun
scalded, so much so that the tree bent near horizontal for a couple
feet then continued growing upward. The tree managed to heal itself
amazingly enough and has been producing peaches every year. The
peaches are ok, but nowhere near as good as the original tree even
though it was self pollinated most likely, it's still different enough
to not be the desired way of reproducing something consistently. It
lacks the characteristic bitterness toward the pit of the parent, as
well as not being quite as sweet as the parent. It's better than
store bought, just nowhere as good as it's mama. ;-)

Janice

If you can control this pollination by hand
pollinating
or being sure that no other tree of another variety is supplying pollen,
than the seed
will probably bear true to the original tree. Self pollinating trees
like your Apricot
have a greater chance of growing the original tree from seed. Size of
the tree is controlled
by the rootstock upon which you graft your scion wood. I don't know
about St. Julien rootstock
in the UK. We have a Fruit, Nut, and Berry Inventory Book, here in the
States. Perhaps there
is a similar book in the UK, which should list all available rootstocks.

Sherwin Dubren


WillA wrote:

Hi,

I have an Apriocot tree(Morrpark) it is currently flowering so I am
trying to pollinate it using camel hair brush etc.... where are the
insects when you need them?

I am rather hoping fruit will be produced. If they are I would like to
try and propegate grow from seed to tree. It may seem a bit premature
but I would like to try grafting and have a few of questiions

Why are fruit trees often grafted, is it to control size?

Why does there seem to be no suppliers of St Julien A rootstock on the
web in the UK?

Will
--
WillA
------------------------------------------------------------------------
posted via www.GardenBanter.co.uk